Top US and Russian secret service officials are holding talks in Ankara, Turkey in secrecy, a US National Security Council official told CNN.

CIA chief William Burns is meeting today with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Naryshkin, in Ankara, as part of the US effort to “communicate with Russia on risk management” and discuss cases of “unjustly detained US citizens”, a representative of the US National Security Council told CNN.

“We’ve been very open about having channels of communication with Russia about risk management, especially nuclear and strategic stability risks,” the spokesman said. “As part of this effort, Bill Burns is in Ankara today to meet with his Russian intelligence counterpart,” he added.

The meeting in the Turkish capital was not officially announced, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported, citing an unnamed source. In addition, the Russian newspaper does not give more information about the purpose of the talks.

As reported by the German newspaper Bild, the head of the Russian SWR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, is part of the Russian delegation.

From the Russian president’s office, it was announced that he could neither confirm nor deny the information, while a representative of the Turkish government refused to comment.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Turkey has repeatedly offered to take on the role of mediator. In the first weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine, ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia held in Istanbul were fruitless.

In addition, the Ankara government brokered a deal with the United Nations last July to allow Russia to export grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

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